Fryer: NBA seeing more 3-point shots than ever

Stephen Curry is just one of many NBA players contributing to a rise in 3-point shots taken in recent years. CHRISTIAN PETERSEN, GETTY IMAGES

Touring the sports world, here and there …

• The NBA has become an outside shooter’s league. The proof: Going into Tuesday, with exactly 1,000 games having been played, there was an average of 43 3-point shot attempts a game. The record average since the 3-point line was introduced in the 1979-80 season is 40 3-point tries, set last season. And that broke the record of 37 3-point shots a game set the previous season.

• Stephen Curry set the NBA record for most 3s made in a season last year, with 272.

• The NBA 3-point arc is up to 23 feet, 9 inches from the basket, 20-9 in the NCAA. The NBA arc changes along the sidelines so that the line is 22 feet from the basket at the corners. For a few years, the NBA’s 3-point line had a uniform 22-feet distance, but that was moved to its current configuration before the 1997-98 season.

• The ABA had 3-pointers since it began in 1967-68. The ABA commissioner said the 3-pointer “would give the smaller player a chance to score and open up the defense to make the game more enjoyable for fans.” That commissioner was George Mikan, who was the Lakers’ first great player, a dominating 6-10 center when the team played in Minneapolis.

• The Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan leads the NBA in field-goal percentage and rebounding. The last time a player ended the season as the league champion in field-goal percentage and rebounding was in the 2009-10 season, when Dwight Howard did so. Wilt Chamberlain did it eight times.

• Wouldn’t the Clippers’ Blake Griffin and Chris Paul make a great beach volleyball duo?

• The 2014 AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour concludes with its championships Sept. 25-28 at Huntington Beach, the north side of the pier.

• Bovada, an online gambling website, has the over-under for wins for the Angels at 86.5. For the Dodgers it is 93.

• The over-under for wins for the Rangers is 86.5, and for the Athletics it is 87.5. The Angels are right in there, then, in the AL West.

• Through Tuesday’s games, the Tampa Bay Rays had the best exhibition-season record among AL teams at 15-6. The Miami Marlins had the best exhibition record among NL teams at 17-10.

• The worst exhibition records: the Red Sox, Astros, Rangers and Phillies were 9-15 (tied with the 6-10 Dodgers at .375).

• The Dodgers’ two victories over Arizona in that stupid, early opening-day series in Australia has them in first place. The Dodgers were in first place after two games last year, too, then a loss to the Giants in their third game dropped them to fourth. They moved into first place on July 23 and stayed there, and there they are again.

• Yasiel Puig was held out of Tuesday’s Dodgers workouts because of back stiffness. It would not be from bending over backward to please Manager Don Mattingly.

• This is the first NCAA Tournament Regionals round since 1979 without either Duke, Kansas, North Carolina or Syracuse.

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